WASHINGTON – The White House defended Thursday that the reopening of a controversial detention center for immigrant minors in Carrizo Springs, Texas, is “the best option” to serve these children and adolescents.
“The best option from our point of view is to take these guys, process (their cases) through HHS (Department of Health and Human Services) facilities, where there are protocols against COVID-19, where they are insurance, where they can have access to medical and educational care, “White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said at her daily press conference.
“There are very few good options and we chose what we thought was the best,” he said.
On Monday, HHS announced that the first children had arrived in Carrizo Springs., with capacity for 700 people and that two years ago was transformed into a detention center under the Administration of former President Donald Trump, although the place has been closed since July 2019.
The Joe Biden government has reopened that center, which has tents and is designed to house minors who cross the border from Mexico without the company of an adult.
Psaki justified the decision and noted: “We had to reopen this facility due to the protocols against COVID-19, because we cannot have children in beds, next to each other, we need adequate space.”
In that sense, he stressed that the Carrizo Springs center has been renovated and that it has educational and health services, although the objective of the Government is to move the minors out of that facility as soon as possible.
“There are minors who flee from persecution, from threats in their own countries, travel on their own, unaccompanied,” he listed, “and our point of attention is to address this from a humanitarian point of view, with safety in mind, by what the measures we have taken are so that (their cases) are processed as quickly as possible. “
In that sense, he indicated that the reopening of Carrizo Springs has been a “tough choice” because there were so few options.
A migrant who fell into a well and suffered serious injuries to her leg and back is now with her husband in New York after being released by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICE. His case was transferred from Laredo, Texas in what authorities describe as a “humanitarian gesture.”
“Either we send the children back on a very dangerous trip to their countries, which is not a good option, I don’t think anyone supports it, or we send them to families that have not been examined (by the authorities),” said Psaki. , who stressed that in the past there have been cases of minors who have ended up being victims of human trafficking.
During Trump’s term, Democrats harshly criticized centers such as Carrizo Springs and others such as Tornillo, also in Texas, or Homestead, in Florida.
HHS is responsible for the management of long-term facilities for immigrant minors detained by the US Border Patrol.
According to the CBS television network, the 7,100 beds that HHS has to house these minors are practically occupied, which has led this government agency to reopen Carrizo Springs.
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